Hiiiiiiiiii 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



ODODbmHDD? 



• 





;♦ <uK 






4 > » • 



U-' 












A*: 



./■.■>^' 






:^- 









''^^*' 
% 
















'•^^.^ 






.o'^ 



^o 



-^-^ 









lint 



'''ft 



-. "^^ ^« "bv.^ : ti^e 'b 

%^ - i." <^^ ^ .. "V *•• > 









i 



/\ TSr A_ D D R E S S 

BY 

IVGRATZ BROWN, ESQ. 



X-- ^SL XT E3 I=L TIT 

III its National Aspects as related to Peace and Wa]'. 



DKLIVKItK!) IJEFOIIK: THE GENERAL EMANCIPATION SOCIRTV OP THE 

«TATE OP 3IISS0UEI, AT ST. LOUIS, 

On AVe.lnesday Kvening, September 17, 18G*J. 



Gentlkmkn: I shall address you this evenin«- 
upon the subject of "Slavery in its National 
Aspects, as related to Peace and Wai-." IJad 
circumstances made it ai)i)roFJriate, it would 
have given me pleasure to adopt a line of remark 
more immediately directed to the local objects 
«l your organization. I'.ut each hour has its 
supreme duty, and 1 conceive tlie duty of 
this hour to be the strengthening the hands and 
uptiolding tlie heart of the National (Jovernmcnt 
that It may be induced ))oth to feel wherein lies 
tlie peril tliat most besets us, and to strike at it 
with the death stroke. 

THK CONSTITUTION— ITS ANNIVEKSAKY. 

This day, as you know, is the anniversary of 
the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
States. That instrument was in itself a descent 
and a compromise from the elevated ground of 
the Declaration of Indepeiulence of '1770, not 
less than ot tiie stiiisoquent Ordinance of 1787, 
and unfortunaU-iy compromises have been the 
order ol the day ever since. Nevertheless it was 
the work of earnest men striving to do honestly 
their appointed task. Let us honor khem for their 
intent, 'to say that the Constitution was designed 
to develop into harmonious unity, and liind in 
perpetual league the States and peoples that were 
parties thereto would be only to reiterate the 
languit^rft omployedby its framers in urging its 
ratiheation. But constitutions do not make na- 
tions and growths arc sometimes fostered, and 
moral infiuenees sometimes repressed that pro- 
duce strange contortions in the body politic. 
And so It has transpired in this instance. After 
three quarters of a century of operation there is 
witnessed division instead of nnion, discord in- 
stciid ot harmony, hate instead of love, between 
the jarring sections of the country. No fulsome 
paiK'gyrie ujion l.y-gone times— no unreasonino- 
lauilation ot the< 'onsiiiution in itself— will either 
explain or remedy this unlooked for ending to so 
many hopes clustered around an almost deified 
paiehment. And t do not propose to go into any 
such declamation ; but shall leave it to those who 
believe nothing good but what is past, nothing 
possible but what is accomplished, and who stand 



idle singing syren songs to obsolete forms whilst 
the very ground beneath their feet cracks with 
the tremor of tin; earthquake, 'fhese davs are 
full enough of events to have their own elucida- 
tion ; the Constitution in its narrow fittin'>- i< 
straining and rending on the athletic body of" an 
aroused nation, claiming adjustment, not flat- 
teries; the high noon of the civilization of the 
continent is eome in storm and darkness, and 
the out-looks must be watchful, the penetration 
clear and deep, the sacrifices rapid, unliesitatiii»- 
suited to the necessities, if we are to rido (.ih' 
the whorls and breakers tiat surround. 

WK AJIE THE REVOLUTION. 

'J'hey who would forecast the results of the 
great crisis which is now upon this nation, must 
do so l)y other lights than those relied on in past 
partisan controversies regarding our Govern- 
ment and its functions. This is an age of tran- 
sition, precipitated on us, it is true, by armed 
resistance to the national sovereignty, but iionc 
the less a transition age for all tl'iut. It is a 
passage from the Old to the New : abiu|)tly, with 
disjointed efi'ort, impeded by formalism.s reac- 
tions, civil war ; yet, neverllieless, a veracious 
passage, and we are the revolution. 

'llu! seceded States began this conflict of arms, 
and in so far are respousilde for its many calami- 
ties ; but they only cast <lovvn the Ijarriers to the 
pent up thonght of the nation, and in the present 
still more tlmn in the ])ast, that thonght is macrh- 
ing on with the vast development that ever 
characterizes revolutionary cycles. A fnll con- 
ception of this truth is essential to any under- 
standing, either of the changes that have so far 
passed upon rulers as well as p(-ople, or of 
those other and sterner attitudes that are yet to 
be taken by both. 

The roots of this matter reach further back 
than it is the purpose here to probe. Freedom, 
m its relations to property, persons, princi- 
ples, has been the grand central ligur(> of the 
century, and its outgrowths are essential fea- 
tures of the pending conflict. Indeed it requires 
onlyordinary scrutiny t© trace, during the lat- 
ter- years of our political life, the lineaments ot 



2l 



a great historic revolution. The advance, from 
the day John Hampden tested the ship money 
levy, to the day Strafford's impeachment ended 
Star Chamber procedures, and further, to the day 
©harles Stuart's head rolling ia the basket fin- 
ished the bssincss of divine right — the advance, 
I say, was not more signal than that which has 
taken place here touching liberties ; first from 
resistance against territorial extensions of 
slavery, next to abolishing the institution in 
the ny.tion's capital, and now to initiating poli- 
cies of confiscation and emancipation in the 
States themselves. A simple contrast of public 
opinion concerning all the questions involved in 
this war a year ago, and the public acceptation 
in which tbe same points are now held, will af- 
ford sufiicieiit evidence of the progress that has 
taken place, 'that that progress has come from 
the people, and been towards radical views of 
freedoiQ, scarcely needs to be illustrated. The 
conviction that any infringement of individual 
liberty if permitted to organize and perpetuate 
itself in society, imperiled its existence by in- 
citing a substitution of caste or class rule for the 
simple equity of republican government, from 
being a hesitant disputed dogma, has become an 
accepted national faith girt with armies and 
navies for its upholding. This is lYansition, 
this is Progress, this is Eevolution. 

The national administration of the present is 
the representative ot this new order, so far as that 
is developed. The rebellion is a resistance 
against the national thought as thus reflected, 
and a determination to l)reak up the government 
rather than submit. With the formci", freedom 
is the controlling spirit ; with the latter, slavery 
dominates all things. In other words, it is but 
a repetition here of that struggle, that contortion, 
that inward wrestling which time out of mind 
has convulsed every nation that has achieved 
enlarged liberties. 

Applying therefore, the formula of revo- 
lution to the solution of this crisis, it will 
lead us to some conclusions that are well worth 
considering, and to a generalization of the fu- 
ture not as yet sufficiently meditated by our 
people. Before doing so, however, it will be well 
to examine some of the antecedents of this con- 
flict in which we find ourselves engaged. 

WHAT HAS MADE SrCH A REBELLION POSSIBLE? 

The question is often asked, what has made 
such a rebellion possible ? All writers of news- 
papers have hitherto habitually boasted that our 
oovernment, by its very nature, pliant to popu- 
lar will, precluded the calamity of civil war. 
The ballot box was worshijiped as peacemaker, 
and so ordinarily it fell out ; but here now, at the 
very acme of votings and hustings and electings, 
it has failed — has in fact turned up exactly other- 
wise. Let us strive to comprehend this phe- 
nomenon. 

In the absence of any alleged tyranny, the ani- 
nivK of a movement which has hurried half the 
States into rebellion must be sought in those 
conditions and conjunctions which give unity to 
the sentiment of revolt. 

First, then, we see that the line which separ- 
ates freedom and slavery is everywhere the 
boundary line of rebellion'; for even those bor- 
der States that have not formally seceded are 
only held quiet by martial law. No where, how- 
ever, has free soil shown any affinity toward the 
uprising. Its treason cases have been altogether 
sporadic. 

Second — We find within those limits of rebel- 
lion the slave system is everywhere appealed to 
as the sufficient bond of affiliation. The crjm- 
?«(w t'a?<Ae is treated as a thing existing, recog- 



nized, undeniable. Even those who hold fer 
loyalty to the Government in doubtful sections, 
hasten to profess fidelity to the institution to as- 
sure their own safety if the revolt succeeds. 
Sympathizers in our midst, too, all predicate 
their feeling on the same ground. 

Third— We perceive the result of the slave sys- 
tem in the outworking of half a century has been 
to create a social life reposing exclusively upon 
caste for its honors as well as its industries ; to 
transform political methods so that only minori- 
ties can rule, supplanting republicanism by oli- 
garchy, and to divide or sectionalize the evan- 
gelical churches, compelling each to interpolate 
its creed with the slave code as the price of tol- 
erance. Thus in the relations of man to God, *"- 
government, to his fellow beings, it has conso. 
dated those communities where it obtains — n 
other words, the whole area of the rebellion- 
into conditions of direct antagonism to the gre: 
body of the people of the nation. 
_ It is because of these things that such a rebe 
lion has been possible ; things that ballot-votin 
so far has had no tendency to dissipate; requii 
ing rather, as it would seem, the fierce surger. 
of revolution and radical reform to cure. Am 
the same cause which places those communitie 
in a relation of conjunction as to each other 
also impels them to regard citizens of the loya 
States as to all \niQi\isJ'orei(/7ieis. Hence the vin 
dictiveuess that has been displayed, as also the 
plausibility of that view whereby their leaders 
have taught them to regard this war as invasion. 

The conditions that characterize the commu- 
nities now resisting the National Government, 
and resisting it because hostile to the national 
thought, whilst they result directlj^ from the 
slave system — indirectly are abuses sprung from 
the constitutional and political system which 
by fostering and encouraging slavery has per- 
mitted it to generate such a diseased state. 
Eevolution in its march must attack these if true 
to itself, for until it does the solution will be no 
uearer than at the outset. 

If this be a correct analysis of events hereto- 
fore, as well as of characteristics now existing, it 
will follow that so long as the slave system ob- 
tains, engendering its sectionalism, so long hos- 
tilities will remain embittered, and tranquillity 
be impossible, even in the event of a conquest by 
overwhelming armies. It cannot but be appa- 
rent to whosoever shall consider the educating 
forces which slavery must continue exerting as 
it has heretofore done, to make its communities 
diverse in all social aspects, abnormal in politi- 
cal relation, and isolated in their industrial atti- 
tude, from the residue _ of the United States 
that a mere conquest without an assimilation 
of institutions will neither restore the Union 
among the people of those sections, nor cause the 
authority of the Federal Government to be ac- 
cepted in good part. This truth is so clear, that 
the only wonder is how any administration could 
pass through a year of fruitless conciliations 
without ])erceiving the repugnances unremoved 
and the very cause of them all untouched. In 
justice, therefore, to the revolted States_ which 
our arms propose to reduce into submission, we 
must also make those eliminations — necessary in 
order that they may develop into unity and com- 
munity with ourselves. To conquer and then 
leave them with a social life, a political system, 
religious fanaticisms continuously engendering 
and always impelling them to collision and re- 
sistance, would be neither prudent nor humane. 
To make war against the logical results of sla- 
very, and leave slavery to breed other logical 
results as cause of future conflict, would be nei- 



'>.Z: 



Sf 



ther wise uor well. We must not only put down 
the men in arms, but wo must also destroy the 
influences actively generatini^ the s])irit of disu- 
nion. We must eradicate as we march that ele- 
ment which alone makes rebellion possible in 
the present, and which will make it chronic in 
the_ future, if suffered to remain. Conditions 
which develop loyal, cohering, harmonizing 
States, and those which breed diverging, inimi- 
cal, antagonistic States, arc before us in their 
results — the former come of freedom, the true 
basis of constitutionalism, the latter of slavery 
its exceptional abuse — and we have but to insist 
upon the former and abolish the latter to elfect 
national assimilation. The French Revolution 
|17S9 accomplished itself by laying the axe to 
je root of the feudal system, which had grown 
le inequalities and social evils that set French- 
aen at war with each other, and threatened the 
ismemberment of a ^reat nation; and so we, in 
.epublicaniziug the institutions of this people, 
nd confirming our free government to future 
;;enerations, must obliterate that slave system 
.?^hich has dismembered the States and inark- 
.■;d out the lines of rebellion, and without abol- 
ishing wliich any transition in the slave sections 
.rom the old to the new is a moral and physical 
';impossibility, 

WHAT jrSTIFIES THIS WAR? 

■ If I differ from those who assign purely tech- 
'nical breaches of constitutional law as the 
justification to theGeneral Government for a sub- 
jugation of the seceding States, it is not that I 
value constitutional law less, but that I prize 
the moral attitude and responsibility of my coun- 
try more. 

The principle of self-government is as applica- 
ble to the South as to tlie North, to one State as 
another, and I should be loth to utter one word 
which might disparage that fundamental doc- 
trine of political freedom. But the principle of 
self-government as conceded toothers, is limited 
by the principle of self-nreservation as related 
to ourselves. While it might be matter of grave 
doubt, therefore, whether the expenditure of so 
much blood and treasure could be justified before 
God and man for the mere enforcement of con- 
1^ formity to this or that governtiieiital form, there 
" can be no question of the rightfulness of sup- 
'] pressing by force and at every cost an armed 
"' principle of antagonism that seeks to erect itself 
within our limits — fatal to our government, our 
freedom and our future. Believers in the right of 
revolution cannot advocate the absolute rule of 
the strongest solely because the majority exists. 
We know there is no dirine rujht in "constitutions 
any more than in kingships, and that in resolv- 
ing the grave problem of enforcement there must 
be higher and more vital reasons for resort to 
wai' — that last arbitrament of nations — than the 
preservation of the simple unities of the past. 
If it were otherwise, if the limi ts of a State were 
all sufficient for its maintenance intact at every 
cost, then in all the great crises of the world's 
history Right would rest with establishment in 
opposition to reform, with geography as against 
revolution. But it is not so; the geueral ver- 
dict of mankind has decided quite to the con- 
trary, and the page that kindles the eye of youth- 
and quickens the blood of age, is ever found re- 
citing the story of progress, of change, of the rise 
of republics, of the remodelling of institutions. 
Self-preservation, however, intervenes as imperi- 
ously with nations as with individuals, and 
without question it is now such preservation 
against a^es of strife resulting from slavery as a 
social principle, consolidated militarily on the 



frontiers of freedom, that we each and all feel 
and know to be the truejustification of our peo- 
ple, for pur])osing a forcible reduction of the se- 
ceded States. 

'Ihe mind can scarce conceive the frightful 
succession of calamities that would result from 
such a proximity of hostile elements, if permit- 
ted to take the shape of separate nationalities, 
and strengthen for a conflict involving the em- 
pire of this continent. War would be an erup- 
tive volcanic destruction, multiplying desola- 
tions beoynd the recujierative powers of peace, 
and peace would be but the giant struggle to 
outreach in the number, magnitude and costli- 
ness of the prejjarations of war. And war would 
be the rule, peace tiie exception — hatred intense, 
enveloping both as with a garment of fire. It is 
to take bond of the future against such a fate ; 
to confirm our liberties tranquilly to our chil- 
dren; and to restore moral forces to their proper 
ascendency in the councils of the nation not less 
than the minds of the people, that a million of 
men arQ now enrolled in the armies of the Repub- 
lic. This is the argument and the only argu- 
ment that will at last be plead before the bar of 
history in vindication of our refusal to recog- 
nize the right of the rebellion to self-government. 

THE LIMITS OF THAT JUSTIFICATION. 

But this argument does not stop here. In 
justifying a coercion it also imposes a duty. If 
it carries with it the destiny of a whole section, 
and legitimates the sacrifice of rebellion on the 
altar of self-preservation, it likewise sternly 
enjoins that the means used shall confront the 
inherent cause of the revult, and that the end at- 
tained shall correspond with the basis on which 
alone the war can be justified. It necessitates, 
by its very logic, that hostilities shall adjust 
themselves to the higher veason that underlies 
the resort to force. Hence it follows that if we 
be houest in the prosecution of this war — if we 
intlend it as a guarantee for the future, and not 
a mere sj)oliation of the present — if we seek an 
assimilation and confirmation of the Republic, 
and not a mere subjugation of adjacent prov- 
inces for Proconsular rule — if we are truly pene- 
trated with a resolve to subdue that antagonism 
of asocial and political state, resting on slavery, 
and threatening all U-i^Q institutions, which con- 
stitutes the life of the rebellion — then does our 
very sincerity demand that we address ourselves 
at once to the work necessary to insure a tutnre 
of peace, honor and safety, by proclaiming 
eraaucipation as the precursor "of our armies. 
This is fundamentally a limitation upon thejus- 
tice of this war; for if we shall fail to strike at 
that which we set forth as the substance of the 
]>eril that demands such terrible repression, 
then will this nation stand convicted before the 
world cither as an imposter, or else an imbecile. 
Logically we may not halt between the extremes 
of a concession to tlie projected Southern slave 
Confederacy of the right to choose its forms of 
government and association, subject of course 
to the equities of separation, or else compelling 
those States into unity and su})Hussiou upon 
grave policies of self-def(uise, we are bound in 
honor and truth to eradicate that clement whicli 
creates our danger, and makes such concession 
exceptional and inadmissible. 1 am aware thai 
there arc geographical reasons urged, such as the 
division of mountain and plain, the command 
of navigable^ streams, and control of inter- 
oceanic transit lines, in vindication of the war 
policy, and 1 fully admit their force and perti- 
nency, simply remarking, however, that such 
reasons only go the propriety of exacting secu- 



•ities to rcommerce and intercourse — might be 
iolred by a TxM- Vevtiu perhaps — and do not 
;ouch, as does the slave question, the vital prin- 
■iple of tlie very existence of our government. 
Let us then accept the limitation equally with 
hejustificatiou, and take that step forward de- 
nanded by the triumvirate of reason, justice, 
safety. 

THE BAKBAKISM OF FORCE. 

The lover of his country is not apt to be dis- 
v)uraged as to the eventual triumph of its arms. 
I'he lostbattle, the miasmatic campaign, aban- 
loned lines and blown up magazines are re- 
rarded as incidents of war. They are deplored 
lut not held as conclusive, or even significant of 
he ending. There are "signs of the times," 
lowever, in our horizon that have a gloomier 
ook than lost battles. And darkest and strangest 
)f all the discouragements that have of late 
JC'fallen, must be considered the spectacle 
iresented by the Government in its dealings 
vith this^terrible crisis — repnuing itself altogether 
ijimi ilie mere liar-hariism of fmr-e. One would 
hink, when reading the call for six hundred 
housand men to recruit our armies, and seeing 
here no appeal to or recognition of the ideas 
hat rule this century, not less than this hour, 
-hat, as a<!overument ours was intent on sui- 
;ide— as a nation we had abandoned our progres- 
;ion. Can it be lihat those [Iwho have been ad- 
vanced for their wisdom and worth to such high 
slaces of rulership do not understand that since 
,his world began the victories of mere brute 
brce have been as inconsequent as the ravages 
)f pestilence, and as evanescent as the genera- 
ions of men. Or can it be that, understanding, 
hey care only for tiding over the present con- 
,est_ to bequeath revolt and internecine war as 
,he inheritance of those who are to come after 
hem. That would be virtual disintegration — 
lational death. If the Government undertakes 
o abandon tliu revolution in its very birth-pains 
-if it intends to have no reference to the ideas 
)f which it is the representative — if it contem- 
plates a disregard of the progressing thought 
hat not only installed it, but has carried it so 
ar forward since installation — if it is deter- 
nined to found its dominion over subjugated 
Hates not in the name of a principle that shall 
issimilate its conquests and assure their liber- 
ies, but of simple power — then will it place it- 
>elf, hj its own action, in the attitude of other 
md equally gigantic powers that have attempted 
he same work and have failed. It may have its 
lay of seeming successes, but even that will en- 
ail an age of complications. Does not Poland, 
IS fully alive to-day, after ninety years of forci- 
3le suppression, as on that morning of the first 
)artition, convince us that thife thing of the do- 
ninion of power without the assimilation of na- 
ions can only continue upon condition of 
in ever-recurring application of those forces 
,hat achieved the first reduction ? Does 
lot the uprising and the cry for a united Italy, 
d'ter live hundred years of fitful effort, continu- 
)ns conflict, and successive disintegration under 
be tramp of a multitudinous soldiery, tell how 
ixed are social laws, how faithful to freedom are 
)eoi>les, and how certain the retribution follow- 
ng upon those policies of government that sacri- 
ice the future to the present, the moral to the 
nere material, the consolidating the foundations 
)f a great commonwealth to the hollow conquest, 
he mock settlement, tlie outward uniformity, 
listory is full of such illustrations, because liis- 
ory repeats itself. But 1 need not go with you 
urther in citing its judgments in condemnation 



of that reliance upon physical force which deems 
itself able to dispense with any appeal to prin- 
ciple. We cannot if we would cast behind us 
the ex))ericnce of eighteen centuries ol' Christian 
amelioration, in which mankind have been learn- 
ing to rely upon moral and intellectual forces 
rather than simple violence in their dealings 
with each other as nations. Not that civiliza- 
tion has surrendered its rights of war, but that 
it insists that ideas shall march at the head of 
armies. Napoleon 111, when he announced that 
the French nation alone in Europe made war for 
an idea, intended to represent it as leading, not 
relapsing from the civilization of the age. And 
therein he both uttered a philosophic truth, and 
penetrated the secret of success. Strip the 
choicest legions of the inspiration they derivi 
from a controlling, elevating cause — esi)eciallv 
tliat cause whose magic watchword cheers tir 
victory in every laud — and iji vain will you ex- 
pect the heroic in action or the miracle in con- 
(iuest. It is a coward thought that God is on 
the side of the strongest battalions. The bat- 
tles that live in memory — that have seeme;! 
to turn the world's equanimity upside down, 
have been won by the lew fighting for a 
principle as against the multitude enrolled in 
the name of power. When theretbre it is con 
ceded that the mere announcement of a police 
of freedom as the policy of this war would i)a!- 
alyze the hostility of all the sovereigns of En- 
rope and wed to us the encouragement of their 
peoples, why is it that so little faith obtains 
among our rulers tb;it it would equally 
strengthen the Government here amid the niii- 
lions of our own laud ? Have the populations 
oi' our States fallen so low — become so iri'e-*i)on- 
sive to the watchwords of liberty thai it is not 
fit to make such an appeal to them ? Is there no 
si^Tiificance in the lact that amid thi; livi; tliou- 
sand stanzas that have vainly attenii)ted to exalt, 
the unities of the past into a nation's anthem — a 
song of war kindling the uncontrollable ardors of 
the soul— one alone, proscribed like the Marseil- 
laise, has been adopted at the camp fire — 

" John Brown's boflj' lies a mouldering in tlie grave, 
ilis soul is inarclimg on." 

Six hundred thousand soldiers summoned to 
to the field, ('«'/ forwlutt'^ 'fhe nation asks of 
the President,/'/?' what f^ Is it that the Govm'n- 
nient may wring a submission from the possible 
exhaustion on the part of the seceding Stab^s, 
that shall be a jiostponement, not a settlement, 
of this great crisis, and that shall be uuiclat- 
ed to the causes that have produced it or the 
progression on our part that has put on the ar- 
mor of revolution ? If so, the Government will 
find when, perhaps, it is too late, that in addi- 
tion to the rel)ellion, it will have to confront a 
public opinion that has no sympathies with 
reaction and that will withdraw, as unitedly as 
it has heretofore given all its trust, from 
those in power. Or, is it that grounding 
this great struggle upon its true basis, upholding 
the national honor whilst battling for the na- 
tional thought, our armies are to be marshaled 
under the tlag of freedom, and the peace achieved 
is to be one that shall assure personal and poli- 
tical liberty to evei'y dweller in the land ? If 
that be so, let the fact be proclaimed, not hidden 
from the people, and there will need no call from 
President, no conscription from Congress to 
recruit the ranks of the soldiers of the Eepublic. 

EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE. 

Jhe two great revolutions of modern time 
which mark the most signal advance in political 
freedom, that of England during the Common- 



^</ 



wealth aud that of France in 178!) have this 
among many other striking features of similari- 
ty—that iu each case a large part of the empire 
resisting the advent of free principles, took up 
arms against the government to contest theissue. 
In Vendee, as in Ireland, it became necessary to 
establish by force the supremacy of the new or- 
der. It was antagonism by th'e population ol 
whole sections, and iu both instances, courses 
of conciliation having proved worthless, astern 
aud vigorous policy of sulyugation was re- 
quired. That even the suecos.s which crowned 
sn(!h measures was only partial and transient, 
demanding a supjilemental work of assimila- 
tion, is also well worthy ot attention. But iu 
subduing the resistance now presented, this na- 
tion Inis that to contend with, not less than that 
to assist it, which was not present in either of 
the parallels cited. I allude to slavery, the 
strength and the weakness of the South. 

Look steailily at the prospect. Nine millions 
of people in all— five millions and a half of 
whites addressing themselves exclusively to 
warfare, sustained by three millions and a 
half of blacks drilled as slaves to the work of 
agriculture. Such are the official statistics of 
the seceding States. 

Witii the whites the conscription for military 
purposes reaches to every man capable of bear- 
ing arms; with the blacks the conscription for 
labor recognizes neither weakness, nor age, nor 
sex. Solitary drivers ply the lash over the whole 
manual force _ to transform jilantations into 
granaries. This allotment necessai'ily gives to 
war the largest possible number of soldiers, and 
extracts from labor the greatest possible produc- 
tion of food. Coml)i>ied, protected, undisturbed, 
Die relation so developed presents a front that 
may well shake our faith in any speedy subjuga- 
tion. 

< )f these five and a half millions white popula- 
tion, the ratio over the age of twenty-one, which, 
according to statistical averages is one in si.v, 
will give all-action over 900,000 men, from which 
deduct as exempts or incapables twenty per cent 
leaving 720,000, and add on the score of minor 
enlistments, one half those between the ages of 
sixteen and twenty-one, or 55,000, and there ex- 
isted 775.000, as the total possible Confederate 
force in the outset. If from this number 100,000 
be stricken off as the aggregate of the killed, dis- 
abled, imprisoned and parolled since the out- 
break ot the war. and 70,000 be added as the pro- 
bable number of recruits from Kentucky, Mis- 
souri and Jfaryland, there will result 745,000 as 
the effective force. From these are to be taken 
the men needed for the civil service, for Provost 
and Police duties, and for regulating the 
transmission or exchange of productions 
—certainly not less than 90,000, and there 
remains an aggregate of 655,000 as the 
Iruit of _ thorough conscription. Perhaps 
liowever, it is right to make from such ri"-id 
possible military array, a deduction in favor of 
llie population which abandoned the secedino- 
states since the war began, and that which in° 
tnnsically loyal has evaded enrollment. In de- 
liuilt of any certain information this may be 
placed at 55,000 men, thus leaving 600,000 
soldiers fit for service and ready to be concen- 
trated and marched as the skill of their com- 
manders may determine. 

Such is tlie strength of the array that now 
contests and resists the cause of advancing- free- 
dom in the nation. That the strength fs not 
overestimated; that the conscription has been 
remorseless is proven by every critical battle 
Beld wliere our armies heve been outnumbered 



and IS to-day doubly attested by our beleagued 
Capital, and widely nuMiaced frontiers. There 
then is the rebellion strii)))cd to the skin. Look 
at it squarely. Those dOO.doO soldiers stand be- 
tween us and any future of hauor, liberty, or 
peace. How are they to be disposed of, defeated, 
suppressed ? 

It is an imposing column of attack, but it has 
also its element of weakness aud dispersion. 
IJemembcr that in making such an estimate, it 
has be(!n predicated upon the fact that the whole 
available white pojiulation was devoted to the 
formatiou of armies. Ko part was assigned to 
the labor of the field or workshop, to production 
or manufacture ; but all this vast organization 
reposes for sustenance— not to speak of 
efficiency, on the hard wrung toil of slaves. 
Eeflect, furthermore, that this whole founda- 
tion is mined, eruptive, ready to shift 
the burden now resting on it so heavily. The 
three and a half millions of black population 
engaged in supplying the very necessaries of 
hie and movement to the Confederate armies are 
all loyal in their hearts to our cause, ana re- 
quire only the electric shock of proclaimed free- 
dom to disrupt the relation that gives such 
erectness and impulsion to our adversaries, and 
such peril to ourselves. Years of bondage have 
only sharpened their sensibilities toward liberty, 
aud the word spoken that causes such "a 
hope will penetrate every quarter of the South 
most speedily and most surely. Emancipate 
the industry that upholds the war power of the 
South; destroy the repose of that system which 
has made possible a levy en tmsKe of every white 
male able to bear arms; recall to the tillage of 
the field; to the care of the plantation; to the 
home supports of the community a correspond- 
ing number of the five and a" half millions 
whites, and there will be put another face to this 
war. Compel the rebels to do their own work, 
hand for hand, planting, harvesting, victualing, 
transporting— to the lull substitution of the 
three and a half millions blacks, now held for 
that purpose, and where now they advance with 
armies they will fall back with detachments; 
where abundance now reigns in their camps 
hunger will hurry them to other avocation. It 
needs only that the word be spoken. A national 
declaration of freedom can no more be 
hidden from the remotest sections of 
the slave States than the uprisen sun 
in a cloudless sky. The falsehoods, the 
doubts, the repulsions that have heretofore 
driven them from us, will givepla«e to the kind- 
ling, mesmeric realization of protection and de- 
liverance. In the very outset their forces, which 
now march to the attack, will be compelled to fall 
back upon the interior to maintain authori- 
ty, and prevent escapades 6w?«(/,vv.;. Insui'rec- 
tion will not so much be apprehended, for where 
armies are marshaled and surveillance with- 
drawn, the slave is wise enough to know that a 
plot with a center— an uprising would be sure to 
meet with annihilation, whilst desertion from 
the plantations is only checked by the repressive 
rules of our own lines. The right to do these 
things needs not to be argued ; i' is of the mu- 
niments of freedom, of the resorts of self-preser- 
vation, of the investure that charges the govern- 
ment with the defense of the national life. And 
in this hour can be effected that which hereafter 
may not be practicable. Occupancy of the en- 
tire coast with many lodgments made by our 
navy, a penetration of the Valley of the Lower 
Mississippi, giving access to all its tributary 
streams, and the exposed front of Virginia, 
Tennessee and Arkansas, give ample basis for 



stending such a proclamation. Eesumingthe 
xlvance ourselves, with augmented forces, we 
hall find the 600,000 Confederaten compelled to 
Letach one half thoir force for garrisoning the 
otton States, whilst of the remaining 300,000, 
arge numbers will necessarily fall out te replace 
be industrial support of tBeir families 
.long the border. State by State, as it is 
iccupied and liberated, will recall for sub- 
titution those spared to offensive war in 
eliance upon slave production. The 300,000 will 
ipeedily become 100,000, and instead of concen- 
rating back upon their reserves, massed in ira- 
)osing column, as has heretofore been their 
)olicy when temporarily checked, ike very condi- 
ioii of the Smith loill reqiiire a wide dispersion o/ 
heir forces. Conquest and suppression will thus 
)e rendered matters of absolute certainty. The 
louble result of immensely diminished numbers 
n the Confederate armies, and of its separa- 
ion into broken columns for local surveillance 
iver all threatened slave territory, is thus seen 
flow from emancipation as a war measure. 

AFRICAN BRIGADES. 

In the grave contest on which we have entered 
or life and for death no appreciative judament 
;an be formed of the absolute necessity of writ- 
ng freedom on the flag that leaves out of view 
he organization of the labor and the valor, for 
nilitary purposes, of the population thereby lib- 
srated. The substitution of freed blacks, when- 
;ver they can relieve for other duties the en- 
isted soldier, has already so far commended 
tself, in defiance of slave codesand equality 
ears, as to have been adopted in some divis- 
ons of our armies. The wisdom that should have 
breseen in such a policy extended as far as prac- 
icable the addition to-day of 50,000 soldiers 
the effective fighting force of the Gov- 
'rnment, perhaps changing the fate of crit- 
cal campaigns, has been unfortunately wanting, 
^nd yet the army regulations as applied to 
he muster rdflls of our forces will show that near 
.wice that number of disciplined troops could 
lave been relieved of ditching, teaming, serving 
)r other occupation, and sent to the front. More- 
)ver, any policy which looks distinctly to the 
aibjugating and occupying, militarily, until the 
lational authority shall be sufficiently respected 
work through civil processes, the States now 
n rebellion, rnust embrace within its scope the 
jmployment of acclimated troops for garrison 
md other duties, during those seasons fatal to 
,he health of eur present levies. The diseases 
)f a warm climate have already been far more de- 
structive to the lives of our soldiers, as shown by 
iggregated hospital reports at Washington, than 
ill our battle-fields, and hereafter, in the preva- 
ence of those epidemics so common in the Gulf 
Hates, our battalions, if subjected to Southern 
service, would melt away disastrously. It is 
lot possible, therefore, to separate the holding 
)f the rebel States from the employ of acclima- 
;ed troops. And for that purpose but one re- 
source exists — the liberated blacks, whose veins 
3ourse with the blood of the tropic. Arm them, 
irill them, discipline them, and of one fact we 
nay be sure — they will not surrender. I take it 
;hat a race liberated by the operation of hostili- 
bies, is entitled, by every usage of warfare, to be 
irmed in defence of those who liberated them, 
ind furthermore, I take it that a people made free 
in accordance with the humanities of this cen- 
tury, is entitled by every right, human and di- 
vine, to be armed as an assurance of its own re- 
jovered freedom. 



This step will be at once the guarantee against 
future attempt at re-enslavement, and the bond 
that no further revolt on the part of the States 
occupied shall be meditated. Above all else, \i 
will be assurance unmistakable that no Hiz- 
graceful peace, ho dismembered country, no 
toresworn liberties will end this war. What, 
shall we stand halting before a sentimentality, 
blinking at shades of color, tracing genealogies 
up to sons of Noah, when our brothers in arms are 
being weighed in the scales of life and death ! 
Go, ye men of little faith; resign your high char- 
ges, if it be you cannot face a coward clamor in 
the throes of a nation's great deliverance. Go and 
look yonder upon the pale mother in the far 
Northland, weary with watching by her lonely 
hearth for the bright-faced boy's return. Her 
hope had nerved itself to trust his life to the 
chances of the battle field ; but the trundling 
wheels bear back to her door a stricken form, in 
coarse pine box, with the dear name chalked 
straggling across, indorsed "Fever." Listen 
then to the wail of crushing woe sobbed out by 
a broken heart, and say to her, if you can, 
General, Statesman or President, that you re- 
fused the aid that would have saved that double 
life of mother and son. Verily, the graves of 
the Northmen have their equities equally with 
those of the rebellion. 

COLONIZATION SCHEMES. 

There are those, strange to say, who, in addi- 
tion to the war now waged by us against five and 
a half million of whites, would add to the task 
of reduction thus imposed upon our government, 
the further work of taking possession of and de- 
porting to other lands the three millions and a 
half of blacks. Disregarding the assistance that 
might be derived from the co-operation and en- 
franchisement of the slave labor of the seceding 
States, they would not only strip the slaves of 
the present uncertain hope of personal freedom 
which may be found within our lines, but, still 
viewing them as " chattels," to be dealt with as 
fancy may dictate, would serve a notice on the 
world that the best usage they can hope for 
from risking life to render us aid will be trans- 
portation to climes and countries beyond the 
reach of their knowledge, and that only inspire 
ignorance with terror. According to such, the 
practical solution of the present crisis consists : 

First. In conquering the rebellion by making 
its cause a common cause, as against us, by both 
master and slave. 

Second. In holding the conquered territory and 
and superinducing a state of peace, plenty and 
obedience by the deportation of all who are loyal 
and of all who labor. 

With such the magnitude, not to say imprac- 
ticability, of migrations that would refjuire — 
even if all were favoring — transport fleets larger 
and costlier than those employed for the war, is 
not less scouted at as an obstacle, than the re- 
sistance to be foreseen from the unwilling and 
the depopulation that may be objected by the in- 
terested is treated as a fanaticism. Without 
challenging the sincerity of those who advocate 
such views, it will be sufficient to say that I dif- 
fer from them altogether. I do not believe tihe 
Government has " chattel rights " in the slaves 
emancipated by act of war any more than the re- 
bellion had ; and I do believe that the doctrine 
of personal liberty, if it be worth anything — if 
it be not a sham and a delusion — if it is to 
have any application in this conflict — must be 
applied to them. It is not in behalf of 
the noble and the refined, the generous and 
the cultivated, that the evangels of freedom have 



been heretofore borne by enthused armies in the 
deliverances history so much loves ta delineate 
and extoll ; but to the down-trodden — to the ig- 
norant from servitude — to the enfeebled in spirit 
fiom long j'ears of oppression. Why, then, shall 
those liberated in this country be bereft of the 
rights of domicil and employ ? Because they 
are black, forsooth ! That answer will scarcely 
stand scrutiny by the God who made us all. It 
would moreover justify slavery as fuily as ex- 
tradition. Deportation, if forcible, is in princi- 
ple but a change ot masters, and in practice will 
never solve the problem of the negro question as 
growing out of this war. If voluntary, it needs 
not to be discussed in advance of emancipation. 
The lot of the freed race will be to labor — in the 
future as in the past — but to labor tor the wage 
and not for the lash. That there must be coloni- 
zation as a resultant of the complete triumph of 
the national arms, and the complete restoration 
of the national authority, no one can reasonably 
doubt. But it will be a colonization of loval meu 
int'i, and not "ut ot\ the rebel States. Tne great 
forces of immigration, fostered, and directed, will 
work out the new destiny that awaits the seceded 
States — the assimilation that must precede a per- 
fect union. What it has done for the Lake shore, 
for the Pacific coast, for the Center and the West, 
that will it do for the South also, when no blight 
of slavery lingers there to repel its coming or 
divert its industrial armies. And if in the de- 
velopment caused by its vast agencies, those 
natural afiBnities, so much insisted on by many, 
shall lead the African race toward the tropics, 
to plant there a new Carthage, it will be one of 
these dispensations of Providence that will meet 
with support and co-operation, not hinderance 
and antaijonism from the friends of freedom on 
this continent. 

THE UNION AS IT WAS. 

The half-way house where halt the timid, the 
doubtful, the reactionary in this conflict, hangs 
out a sign : " The Union as it was." Within its 
enclosure will be found jostling side by side the 
good man who is afraid to think, the politician 
who has a record to preserve, the spy who needs 
a cloak to conceal him, and behind all these the 
fluctuating camp followers of the army of free- 
dom. Not that there are no wise and brave men 
who phrase their speech by the attachments of 
the past; but that such have another and purer 
significance in their language than the received 
meaning of " the Union as it was." All who 
look at events which have come upon us see 
that " the Union as it was " contained the 
seeds of death — elements of aggression against 
liberty and reaction through civil war. Its very 
life-scenes, as time progressed, were ever and 
anon startled by the bodeful note of coming 
catastrophe, to be lulled again into false security 
by pa-an songs to its excellence— like some old 
Greek tragedy with its inexorable tVite and its 
recurring chorus. And tragic enough it would 
seem has been its outcome to dissipate any illu- 
sion. Is it believed that the same causes would 
not produce the same results to the very ending 
of time? Is it wis'hed to repeat the miserable 
years of truckling and subserviency on the part 
of the natural guardians of free institutions 
to the exaction, arrogance and dominisu 
of the slave power through fear of break- 
ing the thin ice of a hollow tranquil- 
lity? Is it longed to undergo new expe- 
riences of Sumner assaults, Kansas outrages. 
Pierce administrations, Buchanan profligacies, 
knaveries and treasons, with spirited interludes 
of negro catching at the North, and Abolition 



hanging at the South ? Is it desired to recall 
the time when the man of Massachusetts dared 
not name his residence to the people of Carolina; 
when free speech was a half forgotten legend in 
the slave States; when the breeding of human be- 
ings to sell into distant bondage was the occupa- 
tion of many of the elite of the border land ; and 
when demoralization, that came from sacrificing 
so much self respect to mere dread of any crisis 
or mere hope of political advancement, had 
dwarfed our statesmen, corrupted our journal- 
ism, and made office-holding disreputable as a 
vocation ? For one, I take witness here before 
you all, that I want no such Union, and 
do not want it, because it contained that which 
made those things not only possible but proba- 
ble._ \ trust that I value as much as another the 
purities of a Union, the excellencies of a Consti- 
tution, the veracities and accomplishments of a 
former generation, but who would be the blind 
worshiper of form rather than substance — of a 
name, rather than a reality — of a bond that did 
not bind, and a federation that has resulted only 
in disjunction ? There aro those 1 know who re- 
gard "the Union as it was" as a sentiment signifi- 
cant of material prosperity— unrelated to rights 
or wrongs, and as such they worship it, just as 
they would a State Bank corporation with large 
dividends, or any named machine that would 
enable them to buy cotton, sell goods, or trade ne- 
groes. But such should be content to pass their ig- 
noble lives on the accumulation of other days, and 
not dare to dictate to others a return to such 
debasing thraldom. Of one thing they may be 
sure — that the great Democracy of this nation 
will insist that the Union of the futm-e shall be 
predicated upon a principle uniting the social, 
moral, and political life of a progressive people 
— and purged of the poison of the past. When 
asked, therefore, as the cb" -tans 'of the hour 
often do ask, would you nc . .sh the "' Union as 
it was " restored, even if sidvery were to remain 
intact and protected— say, emphatically. No ! 
Say No ! for such an admission would be'a self- 
contradiction — a yielding of all the longings of 
the spirit to an empty husk whose only possible 
outcome we see to-day iu the shape of civil war. 

PRO-SLAVERT OENERALS. 

It is, perhaps, the fate of all revolutions in- 
volving social changes, to be officered at the out- 
set by the inherited reputations, great and small, 
of the foregoing time, and so far as this fate has 
fallen on our nation it is less to be wondered at 
than deplored. But soon there comes the time 
for change, when the Fairfaxes, the Dumouriers, 
the Arnolds must give place to soldiers of the 
faith. And hopeful to say, it has ever happened 
that conjointly with the public assumption of 
the principle of the revolution, mediocrity, rou- 
tine, half-heartedness have passed from command, 
and victory has replaced disaster. So much is 
historic. We may take comfort then ; for the 
uses of adversity are ours. Pro-slavery generals 
at the head of our armies are the result of pro- 
slavery influence in our national councils, and 
the hesitancy of the Government to proclaim 
officially any distinct policy of freedom 
has kept them there. Yij no possibility, 
however, can such, even if the chance victors of 
to-day, remain possessed of the future. I do not 
underrate the prestige of military success — but 
military prestige is as nought before the march 
of revolution ; and it is only when revolutions 
are accomplished, that the reputations of great 
captains become great dangers. Pro-Slavery 
Generals, therefore, are only dangerous now 
from the disasters that accompany their admin- 



cil: 




-.-.^ or The eonsegnenees 
-err has i-aiig~ir5LToi. and 

^e-m as s :: 



■Lie >.-:-: :;r. Ii ini; - ^.on 

for?:./.. - of the C:: . :iie 

rnicr. :: .. _ . ' ill be aske:. , ■ . ~ : in 

•ih.Su Tnucli laiidcd paTC^TneTit iLii ae-igiic is lie 
■srarrani for the>e things speeificaUy ? But I 
' - — - '- ; -"---■:- -; ralities. Give Mm railier 
.ry — eiTe Mm any trust 
-iV lei it be not -vrithoTit 
iTiil. -ini T- : — i-;i all iMs sacriSce, "with all 
tMs efforr. "«riLh quiak ^spcnse to every demand 
for men anf. " ~r>-r what do '^- ---' .-- be- 
ieaz-.ere'i c ; >aTed by ._ a 



Ivo I It nee-is cot thai j. 
•■— ^ 3II ?T2'?h ir!TisT ii'^e "^^s"^ 



sicoio-i in no »» iiis^icreu. »oice oj* liicu. «jju niTe 
i!ei"er kno'ST! fe.ax in set ■peril, can This countrr 






i t^ iliif of the nation. 



«aa»{£- r->MTftTD I StOTtCuta"?. 



s r€.cTA!r.s.. 
more toudnng spee- 



J-el 
:ir 



ins, or Tamisn^j. giories, stanu lorin suia say, 
■w^th TTTnh "ii]'i bonor. "t^ %t^ anv np*3j"er a solti- 

^ol- 



plisi the ending ? I do not beliere it. 

T' -"- " -rnee-ther"":"" "' '■" / *' ' 



Pre?-; 



of 



?, UJ.3t ti. r : ■??, 

armies... and a snbstiTution 01 other 
that shall reeognixe liberty as the c^td^t 
:z: LrT^blic," and write" FTe-l 



itas Deen 
1 t.€?TitorT. 

- :: "with 
j.ici^i n^.T only 
neTTs- bm eor- 



Iz :---;-:is::z -et me 
passed "when such a d?: 
6TT?i! b~ tbp TQCiST serv; 



mea"r. Ee _ 
pressed "Kith i 

ihat he has 



ordered 





Tra- 




it^ 




- if 




t:"d- 




^ • -f If 


i-mmediate 


exeention 
l5?t Oon- 




.lon 



.'.:iy 

ijv liiiicii 1 iTi'T ire\x ijT i;Ot.i:jj.c Ajj^ i<i preta- 
tion.. Still it can be made an aratar ©f 



l^yr — 



960 



lK 



<«•■* 



J^^ 









.^'5^ 



r-. *. 








s*" 



.0- 



..-^^ 









^ .1 










a9 ^ "^ .V 



^^ ^;>, 



lVv>v^ 






v^. 



.•H/. 



.s^ 



V-. 



"-^^ 



vV" 






"'^^ .0^\-"-'* '"^o '" -^"^ 



A^ 

















5- -* -V 



\-. 






"s. 



.^ 






7^^^^ 



Q^'^ 



-^^-^^ ^>t "'^^ 






■*s 









..-*3ef. 






*. • 



S' 




^' -^-^ 



'. ^* 



^ -.3- >!*»«> j^ Jji^sr 



IraMHMMMiM 



